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The government has gone cool on green issues. Whitehall must do more to support council initiatives

The CBI, environmental campaigners and trade associations were united in criticising Chancellor George Osborne’s lack of support for green initiatives in his latest Budget.

The Association for Public Service Excellence has been one of the organisations arguing that investment in environmentally friendly infrastructure and technology will stimulate economic growth as well as curbing climate change.

APSE’s first strategic forum of the New Year took place last night on the theme of energy efficiency in asset management. Guest speaker was David Kilduff, Head of the Commercial Group at Walker Morris Solicitors, who gave an overview of the issues facing local government in this area.

These events are used as an opportunity to develop policy and share knowledge.

Although many Armageddon prophecies have been written about the coalition Government’s proposed cut to Feed in Tariffs for solar PV and its impact on the wider renewables agenda, I have to say that I don’t quite buy this vision of the future.

When APSE launched its research publication ‘The virtuous green circle: creating a revolving fund for local authority solar energy’, in Birmingham recently, I was impressed by the number of authorities present who were making progress with delivering projects in this area of renewable energy.

Launch of APSE's new research publication 'the virtuous green circle: creating a revolving fund for local authority solar energy', at Birmingham City Football Club. The report demonstrates a business case as to how you can undertake renewables projects in local government on a self financing basis.

Got this article published on the Guardian's website today on the back of the debate I took part in last week.

With latest ONS figures showing more than 132,000 jobs were lost from the public sector last year and councils grappling with unprecedented budget cuts, green issues are in danger of slipping down the priority list. But in my view, it would be an economic error for local authorities to take their eyes off the environmental ball now.

Spent today at the Liberal Democrats annual conference in Liverpool and attended a fringe on how to deliver a low carbon future. The speakers were Doug Parr from Greenpeace, Barry Neville from Centrica and more importantly Chris Huhne the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

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Promoting excellence in public services

APSE (Association for Public Service Excellence) is a not for profit unincorporated association working with over 300 councils throughout the UK. Promoting excellence in public services, APSE is the foremost specialist in local authority frontline services, hosting a network for frontline service providers in areas such as waste and refuse collection, parks and environmental services, cemeteries and crematorium, environmental health, leisure, school meals, cleaning, housing and building maintenance.